Monthly Archives: April, 2021

After the calls stop, the hardest part of a breakup is rarely being alone. It is the administrative problem of feeling: how does someone proceed after an old future disappears? Astian’s new single “How” holds that question there. It does not rush to fill it with a lesson, confession, or the sort of gleaming finality pop often prefers. Astian approaches the aftermath through a playful, stripped-back...

Joe Rian has made a single for the moment the work shirt comes off and the car stereo goes up. “Think Yer In Luv,” is presented as an up-tempo, rock-and-roll-leaning blues track and the first release from his 2 October album of the same name. It is the promise of motion, companionship and a little room to breathe after a long week. Rian made the accompanying...